OT: Copy NTFS based files between servers AND retaining permission intact

[Matt London]

Robocopy is the pretty much the right tool for the job - I've used it
plenty of times and not run into permissions issues - at least, not ones
it didn't tell me about during the copy - I usually like to use
/log:robocopy.log /tee so I get a file I can peruse when it's done.

The only other real alternative is to use some Windows backup software,
but that you're into paying for. I can't say I've played with MS backup,
so that might do the job, but you're still into finding space to store
the backups whilst you go from Server A to Server B.

The problem with NTFS on anything other than Windows is that it has a
pretty large number of permissions that can be granted in an ACL. Just
glancing at the advanced permissions window on my XP workstation here I see:
Full Control
Traverse Folder / Execute File (POSIX execute)
List Folder / Read Data (POSIX read)
Read Attributes
Read Extended Attributes
Create Files / Write Data (I guess this is probably POSIX write)
Create Folders / Append Data
Write Attributes
Write Extended Attributes
Delete
Read Permissions
Change Permissions
Take Ownership

Of course in true MS style, that doesn't line up with anything else.

If you really want to have fun with permissions, check out what Novell
support with NSS and then check out NFSv4 ACLs - both different from
POSIX and NTFS ACLs.

The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from.

--
Matt

William Muriithi wrote:
> On 15 March 2010 14:10, Rafael Carneiro <rafael.carneiro-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>   
>> Shouldn't robocopy /COPYALL (or /COPY:DATSOU) do that?
>>
>> /COPY:copyflag[s] :: what to COPY (default is /COPY:DAT).
>>                      (copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
>>                      (S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).
>>
>>
>>     
> Hmm, actually that is the flag that I used. Like this
>
> robocopy "H:\\Directory" "D:\\Directory2\Directory3" /COPYALL /E /R:0
>
> Thought copy all would do it. Not sure what went wrong till now.
> However, Andrej I like your suggestion, how do you get the summery of
> a tree's permissions so that I compare the old and the new stuff. Its
> far better than manually opening every directory and checking the
> properties for permission.
>
> Lennart, I actually toyed with the idea of using live CD and then use
> rsync, and certain it would keep the posix permissions very reliably.
> Question is, does this apply to NTFS permission too? Google could not
> find me an answer for that from reliable source, so I let the idea go.
>
>
> William
>   
>> Cheers,
>> Rafael
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Lennart Sorensen
>> <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>     
>>> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 03:19:48PM -0500, William Muriithi wrote:
>>>       
>>>> This is a tad window centric, so may not be entirely appropriate for
>>>> the LUG and hence the OT label. That being said, I believe some of us
>>>> might be dealing with Windows once in a while and hence the post.
>>>>
>>>> We are in the middle of migrating between to file servers and we used
>>>> robocopy.exe to move files to the new file server. I did a sample
>>>> check on some of the files and the permissions seemed to have carried
>>>> over well. However, when I sent out to selected users, some were
>>>> actually able to read documents that were originally unavailable. This
>>>> kind of mean manually going through all directories, something I would
>>>> rather avoid.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone know of a tool that can do this job better or have gone through
>>>> the experience before and would not mind sharing their experience?
>>>>
>>>> Would appreciate any pointers and thanks in advance
>>>>         
>>> rsync?  unison?
>>>
>>> Should be lots of options.
>>>
>>> At least on linux rsync has an ACL flag (-A) which does the full posix
>>> ACL permissions.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Len Sorensen
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>>     
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